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Oct 04, 2007

Susan rated it:

Someone I know claimed this no longer has value, that she would never recommend it because it's saccharine, has a religious agenda, and sends a bad message to girls that they should all be little domestic homebodies. I say she's wrong on all counts. This is high on my reread list along with Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, and a Tree Grows in Brooklyn--you could say that I'm pretty familiar with it.

Let's see--there's a heroine who not only writes, but is proud of the fact and makes a More...

23 comments like (178 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Rory rated it:

I hated this book.

I can't even begin to go into all the reasons I dislike this novel. It's dull and preachy through out most of it--aside from Jo who is a truly inspired character. But everyone else seems one note, most of the chapters come off as morality plays than solid scenes or plots. And just when Miss Alcott has something seemingly interesting she breaks it for no other reason than to do something.

Whether its the pairing of Amy and Laurie (huh?), the point made CON More...

10 comments like (25 people liked it)

May 08, 2008

Corrie rated it:

The book begins:

"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

It's so dreadful to be poor! sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all, added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

We've got Father and Mother, and each other, said Beth contentedly from her corner."

There's an undercurrent of More...

6 comments like (49 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Dottie rated it:

My copy of this is probably 55 years old -- I've probably read it at least twenty-five times. One of my all-time favorite books. One of my favorite authors ever. Yes, it is old-fashioned -- it was old-fashioned fifty-five years ago. But that is the point pretty much in my opinion. This is a story of times past, of a family which functioned in a particular way in a particular time. This is also a story of what one person in a family might have wished were so all of the time in the family bu More...

11 comments like (20 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2010

Abigail rated it:

A book that both defines and transcends the sentimental literature of the nineteenth century, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is one of those lifelong companions that I have read and re-read, in whole and in part, too many times to count...

The story of the four March sisters, their adventures and friends, their joys and sorrows as they come of age during the tumultuous period of the American Civil War, is as relevant today as when it was first written. Here we see both the warmth an More...

27 comments like (21 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2010

Annalisa rated it:

I'm definitely a victim of modern society when I find this book slow. Had I read it in its day (or even as a youth) it would probably be fantastic, but as it is I'm finding the life lessons saturated in every chapter a little much, not sweet. Which brings me to Beth. Back in the day sweet, mild, submissive were prime female qualities. Now I look at the picture of her on the front cover with her empty eyes and blank stares and she looks sweet in a mentally challenged way. And Jo who is endearing More...

12 comments like (20 people liked it)

Feb 13, 2012

Michelle rated it:

No wonder there's a children's version of this book. Most kids haven't experienced actual pain, and these characters obviously came from a bad fairytale. O gee, I'm awfully glad that you girls have become so happy in life. Too bad their lives are hardly realistic. O no! Their father's fighting in the war, AND they are poor. O my, how selfless! They gave food to an even poorer family. Everybody loves each other to death. They even have an artist and writer in the family. But some of the girls hav More...

8 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2008

Sarah rated it:

I first read this book nearly twenty years ago, and at that age I think I was far too young to really appreciate it.

Alcott wrote this as a response to a request for a "book for girls" which I think can explain much of the preachiness about morals and virtues. That Marmee is just so darned virtuous! I think it was also an outlet for Alcott's frustration with being constricted to the expectations and limitations of her gender in 19th century New England. At first I thought Jo More...

2 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2011

Kim rated it:

Reading this book again after an interval of some forty years was much like returning to a place known well in childhood, but not seen since. Memory distorts the landscape and the size and the shape of things contained within it. The place is both totally familiar and completely unknown at the same time.

Little Women is one of the first novels that I remember reading. I can still see the book – a red hardback with small print, the dust jacket long gone. It took me to a time and More...

18 comments like (8 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2007

Carter rated it:

I can't believe how much I loved this book. But it's so good. While I read it, I tried to keep in mind the time in which it was written. Perhaps it helped. Because all of the things that seem so out-dated I didn't mind so much. A couple of times, I went to Wikipedia to find out something or another concerning the book (scarlet fever for example) and every time I did, there was a secret about the book I was reading. I suppose for many, it's not that big of a deal because they know the story More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Karschtl rated it:

I once did a short presentation on this book, the following text was part of it.

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, which is now a part of Philadelphia, in 1832. But soon she moved with her family to the Boston-area, where she and her three sisters Anna, Elizabeth and May grew up. The four girls were educated by their father Bronson Alcott, who was a member of the New England Transcendentalists. Through him Louisa met other Transcendentalists like Theodore Parker, Henry David T More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2012

Martha rated it:

This book is so great. It has character's every girl could ever relate to. ( EX. From being a complete girly-girl or such a tomboy you demand being called the boy-ish version of your name ) This book represents so many different kinds if love and how they change over time; and how some, will last forever. I admit I cried through the story, but the way it was so raw and real. Simple perfection.

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Feb 26, 2009

Antof9 rated it:

I have said for years and years how much I like this book, but I realized when I started reading it on Sunday that I might not have picked it up since 4th grade when I wanted to be called Meg! Is that possible? I think so.

After finishing it on Monday afternoon, I was talking to some girls that evening where I realized (yes, I was thinking out loud) that this book is loaded with advice -- marital advice, parenting advice, interpersonal relationships advice ... and it's all good. I More...

7 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 16, 2009

Cathy rated it:

Caught the last 2/3 of the Winona Ryder version of the movie last night and had to read them all again. It has been long enough that I can't remember all of the details! It feels like visiting with old friends, so wonderful to just slip away into this wonderful family. It's remarkable that a book written over 140 years ago still feels so fresh and vibrant. I've also had a lot of fun reading it for the first time in the computer age. I've looked up several words already that I've been skipping ov More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2008

Brandon rated it:

I couldn't help but imagine James Dobson smiling down upon me as I read this book, nodding and gently whispering, 'That's right, that's right,' and then exhorting me to give this book to my daughter to read, to which I would respond, 'Womenfolk don't read in my house. Learnin' leads to suffrage.' To which James would jump out of his chair and shout, 'THAT'S RIGHT, THAT'S RIGHT!'

I mean, it was charming in the way that those drawings at Lascaux are charming, but I'm not going to be pre More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Linda rated it:

I love this book! There are only two writers that can make me cry and Louisa May Alcott is one of them, I can't help but draw comparisons to my own life when I read about Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy.
I have something in common with each of them so I guess that's why I get drawn into the story and literally can't put the book down despite the fact that I've known how it ends for the past 13 years (and multiple readings each year, makes it hard to forget even the tiniest details)

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2008

Laurajsouthwick rated it:

So great! It gets some criticism today for being too preachy in terms of how "good" young girls should behave, but you have to remember that's how Alcott and many of her peers were getting published at all. Alcott's motives are actually easier to spot than some other writers of the time; Jo's narrative obviously subverts the expected instructional tack of the genre.
Bonus: the movie is one of my favorites (Wynona Ryder version)

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2009

Ayu rated it:

My first encounter with Little Women is around twelve years ago when I read the manga. I also got into the film, read the Indonesian version, and always enjoyed the story of the four March girls. But it does not feel right and proper if you don’t come back to the original novel, and that’s what I did. I read the very novel written by Louisa May Alcott at last.
Reading it was a very enjoyable process I managed to finish it in a day. And I was left with this warm feeling in my heart. I had t More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 27, 2008

Angela rated it:

This is another period piece that surprised me - or, rather, that made me surprise myself. Instead of being put off by the fact that the tone of this book is so clearly dictated by the era in which it was written, I found it really charming, and the characters are drawn in such a lovely way. Skip the movie versions; none of them do it justice.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2008

Jacqie rated it:

I have read this book like 6 times!! And I still love it! One of the reasons I like it so much is because it shows the daily life of the 4 March sisters...it isn't a fairy tale book at all. I like reading about the events in the "old days" like the balls and parties that Meg and Jo went to. I think this is a must read for all girls!

405 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 08, 2011

Anastasia rated it:

Nel progetto "un capitolo al giorno" è impossibile non affezionarsi alle sorelle March. Diciamocelo, c'è troppo moralismo in questo romanzo, però a lungo andare si fa l'abitudine.
Visto che è sempre meglio dire le cattive prima delle buone, parliamo proprio del moralismo di Piccole Donne.
In realtà non si potrebbe di certo criticare, le signorine di quei tempi dovevano comportarsi in un certo modo. Però che nervoso, eh! Più che altro con l'affare Jo, che deve per forza cambia More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Apr 01, 2009

bookczuk rated it:

Random thoughts-- this was a re-read. I think I last read the book when I was 12. Funny how differently it was in memory than it is now. Still dear, but much more moralistic than I remember. Like a little book of lessons and fables. And I'd forgotten the language differences. When did "doesn't" come into acceptable parlance (or maybe when did "don't "stop being used as broadly as it is in this book. Took me aback for the first 100 or so pages to hear it used instead of More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Nov 22, 2008

Christy added it

This is considered a classic for a reason. Aside from the occasional moralizing (or more than occasional), and from the "little women" domestic speak, this book is a gem of characters in miniature: vain Meg, slangy Jo, angelic (boring) Beth, temperamental Amy, not forgetting the rich and handsome "Laurence" boy. I still have not reconciled myself to the fact that Jo turns Laurie down, and although Jo's eventual mate, Prof Bhaer is dear and says "Prut!", I find refug More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Oct 29, 2009

Emilie rated it:

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1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2012

Maggie rated it:

As a child, I'd read an illustrated abridged edition and didn't really think anything of it. But now, having read the original classic, I have fallen in love with the March family. There's something magical about this book that I can't quite put my finger on - perhaps it's how real the characters all are; they have believable flaws contrasting with their more amiable qualities (unlike the two-dimensional folk from Twilight). Of course, Jo is my favorite, but I have grown very fond of all the sis More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 17, 2010

Julie rated it:

Unfortunately, I just couldn’t embrace this book. However, I also couldn’t give it less than three stars because it is such a time tested classic and I could understand why generations of readers have adored it. For me, personally, I found it too feminine and sentimental. The narrative was laced with morals and the romantic and flowery language was tedious. The characters were well developed, though some were more sympathetic than others. As a writer, I had a natural affinity towards Jo, an More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 15, 2008

Emily rated it:

I picked this book off our small-town public libary's classics shelf...now 15 years later my first child, a daughter, is named Louisa May. Need I say more? Alcott's beautifully simplistic and charming novel has resonated with me for years - ever since that first discovery of it years ago.

I believe Alcott was ahead of her time, way ahead of it. She was even ahead of the feminist revolution that occured during the century after her time. In her novel, she illustrates what a lot of wome More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 07, 2008

Sarah rated it:

I started reading this classic text AFTER I watched all three film versions. That being said, it was impossible not to picture June Allyson as Josephine March, the most boisterous and independent of the March Sisters, as well as picturing the always lovely Christian Bale as Laurie. Odd pairing, but anyways. I felt Alcott was writing this against the terms of her time. When it felt palpable to write stories with expected happy endings, rather then invigorating part of ones self and beliefs into t More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 11, 2008

Anna rated it:

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 17, 2008

Santh rated it:

The tale of March family in 1800 setting of Civil War. Mr. March – clergyman –was sent to Washington to fulfill his duty as chaplain in the army. Mrs. March – a very spending mother – was as social worker and spent all her free time helping the poor and needy. The first daughter – Margaret “Meg” March – was pretty at sixteen, with large eyes, soft, brown hair, a sweet mouth, and white hands, of which she was very proud. Jo – Josephine March – was the second daughter, she was a tall, slim, fiftee More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

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